--- title: "Biometrics in Action: The Reality of Streamlining Customer Checks for UK Firms" description: UK firms face rising AML risks as biometric digital identity tools reshape onboarding and compliance—boosting security, efficiency and regulatory confidence author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2025-07-01T14:57:05.000Z updated: 2026-02-25T15:38:38.850Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/biometrics-in-action-the-reality-of-streamlining-customer-checks-for-uk-firms image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/uw_8vsrocsc.jpg categories: Science & Tech content_type: Feature region: United Kingdom publication: Sovereign Magazine --- UK businesses in regulated sectors are grappling with a familiar headache: customer onboarding that takes too long, fails too often and leaves them exposed to compliance failures. Manual document checks remain prone to human error, whilst lengthy verification processes frustrate customers and slow down business growth. With AML compliance failures representing about 24% of recorded financial crime events across the UK, and FCA fines totalling over £121 million last year alone, firms are under mounting pressure to get their [verification processes right](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/german-federal-police-raid-deutsche-bank-in-money-laundering-probe). The challenge has intensified as financial criminals adopt increasingly sophisticated technologies. Traditional approaches to identity verification, built around manual reviews and basic document checks, are struggling to keep pace with synthetic identities and deepfake attacks that can fool even experienced compliance teams. ## Technology Meets Compliance Reality SmartSearch and Daon have announced a partnership designed to address these everyday problems through biometric integration. Daon’s AI-powered facial recognition and liveness detection capabilities will be built into SmartSearch’s existing SmartDoc platform, creating what the companies describe as a more comprehensive identity verification process. The integration combines document authentication with biometric checks, including intelligent user guidance that helps customers capture clear identity documents and selfies. The system automatically detects common issues like glare, blur or misalignment that typically cause verification attempts to fail. ‘Financial criminals are fast, agile, and quick to adopt new technologies to conduct and conceal their illicit activities,’ said Fraser Mitchell, Chief Product Officer at SmartSearch. ‘Businesses in regulated sectors need to be equally armed with cutting-edge technologies to fight money laundering and shield their organisation and customers from fraud.’ ## The Regulatory Burden The backdrop to this partnership is an increasingly demanding regulatory environment. UK firms in financial services, legal, property and accountancy sectors face stringent AML, KYC and KYB requirements overseen by multiple bodies including the FCA, HMRC and professional regulators. The cost of getting compliance wrong continues to escalate. Last year, major penalties included £40 million for Barclays, £29 million for Starling Bank and £17 million for Metro Bank, reflecting ongoing struggles with customer risk assessments, transaction monitoring and due diligence processes. The FCA is currently investigating 341 individuals and 162 firms for potential AML breaches, with prison sentences of up to 14 years possible for severe offences. Meanwhile, [government analysis shows](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-identity-sectoral-analysis-report-2025/digital-identity-sectoral-analysis-2025) the digital identity verification market is expanding rapidly, with biometric solutions becoming increasingly common in financial services onboarding. [Enhanced KYC and KYB verification systems](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/trulioo-elevates-kyb-and-kyc-verification-with-expanded-coverage-and-artificial-intelligence) are becoming essential tools for firms looking to stay ahead of compliance requirements. ## How the Technology Works The SmartDoc platform already uses machine learning and optical character recognition to verify identity documents like passports and driving licences. Daon’s addition brings facial recognition and liveness detection designed to prevent spoofing attempts. The system guides users through document capture, automatically flagging problems that would typically require manual intervention. Liveness detection checks ensure the person presenting the identity is physically present rather than using a photograph or video. The platform connects to databases covering politically exposed persons, sanctions lists and fraud records for ongoing screening. Daon’s global verification capabilities currently secure more than two billion identities across 230-plus countries and territories. Through this partnership, SmartSearch expects to deliver improved first-time pass rates for identity verification, reducing the operational burden of manual document review. ‘Using Identity Verification and Biometric Authentication is key to building trust in the customer onboarding process,’ said Clive Bourke, Daon’s President for EMEA & APAC. ‘We are delighted to have been selected by SmartSearch to provide our identity orchestration platform, TrustX for its SmartDoc solution.’ ## Promised Results The companies point to specific operational improvements they expect the integration to deliver. These include faster customer onboarding through automated verification, improved first-time pass rates that reduce the need for customers to restart the process, and fewer manual interventions that slow down compliance teams. The partnership aims to address what [UK Finance identifies](https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/news-and-insight/blog/five-operational-challenges-uk-financial-institutions-and-how-they-should) as key operational challenges facing financial institutions: slow technology adoption, heavy reliance on manual processes and staffing shortages that create bottlenecks in customer onboarding. Similar implementations across the UK financial sector have shown promise. [Recent surveys indicate](https://regulaforensics.com/blog/biometrics-in-banking/) that over 50% of UK banking companies now rely on [biometric verification methods](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/biometric-payment-authentication-set-to-surge-as-palm-recognition-gains-ground), with major institutions integrating facial recognition from the first onboarding step to improve security and comply with Strong Customer Authentication regulations. ## Outstanding Questions The announcement leaves several practical questions unanswered about implementation. The companies haven’t specified which regulated sectors are likely to see these benefits first, or provided detailed timelines for rollout across different client bases. There’s also limited detail about how the system will handle edge cases or customers whose documents or biometric data don’t fit standard patterns. The relationship between automated processing and human oversight in complex verification scenarios remains unclear. Future developments may include expansion to additional regions or document types, though the companies haven’t outlined specific plans beyond the current UK-focused integration. The partnership represents a practical response to compliance challenges that have real business consequences. Manual verification processes that worked adequately in simpler regulatory environments are proving inadequate against both sophisticated fraud and demanding compliance requirements. With [banking fraud becoming increasingly sophisticated](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/social-media-driven-banking-fraud-exposes-critical-security-vulnerabilities), firms need more advanced defences. If biometric integration delivers the promised improvements in speed and accuracy, it could shift customer onboarding from a compliance burden into a competitive advantage for firms that implement it effectively. [financial crime prevention](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/technology-solutions-to-prevent-systemic-vulnerabilities-in-community-banking) has increased following new regulatory frameworks like the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.